Data Specialist

City of Toronto•Union, NJ

10d•Onsite

About The Position

The Data Specialist role is within the Toronto Water, Technology & Customer Experience division. This is a full-time, temporary position for 12 months, located at 60 Tiffield Road. The role involves implementing detailed plans, recommending policies and procedures, and supervising staff. Key responsibilities include leading tasks and projects related to the modeling, analysis, and interpretation of spatial datasets, designing and testing complex models, and investigating machine learning techniques. The position also involves developing and evaluating work plans for data projects, exploring emerging datasets, and building processes to ingest and analyze large datasets from various sources. The Data Specialist will conduct peer and literature reviews, establish best practices for documentation, and stay updated on the latest research in spatial data analytics and machine learning. This role serves as a subject matter expert on data analytics and modeling, prepares reports for the Division and City Council, and collaborates with internal and external partners. Additionally, the role involves monitoring and evaluating application functionality, ensuring compliance with safety and security legislation, supporting production databases, and participating in after-hours standby/on-call rotations. Responsibilities also include monitoring and optimizing database performance, developing tools for alerting and reporting, collaborating with database administrators, establishing backup and recovery standards, and providing backup and recovery services. The role supports the implementation of IT policies and procedures, plans and executes data conversions and migrations, researches new database technologies, and recommends enhancements to support evolving information architecture and high availability requirements. Finally, the Data Specialist will refresh development, testing, and training databases and participate in testing, training, acceptance activities, and quality and security reviews.

Requirements

Post-secondary degree or diploma in Database System Management or Computer Sciences, or an equivalent combination of education and related experience.
Extensive experience providing implementation analysis and support in data management systems, data integrity, security, backup and recovery.
Considerable work experience with database concepts and design; system/network architecture, operations, protocols, design and development techniques; application support; system and services monitoring tools to support and implement database software and service activities.
Considerable work experience in one or more of the following tools and technical environment but not limited to: Bomgar, OEM, SSRS/SSMS, SQL Developer, Oracle APEX 24.x, MS SQL 2017 to 2022, Oracle 19c, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Power Apps.
Considerable work experience in Quality Assurance and Test processes.

Responsibilities

Implements detailed plans and recommends policies/procedures regarding program specific requirements.
Supervises, motivates and trains assigned staff, ensuring effective teamwork, high standards of work quality and organizational performance, continuous learning and encourages innovation in others.
Supervises the day to day operation of all assigned staff including the scheduling, assigning and reviewing of work.
Authorizes and coordinates vacation and overtime requests.
Monitors and evaluates staff performance, approves salary increments, hears grievances and recommends disciplinary action when necessary.
Provides input into and administers assigned budget, ensuring that expenditures are controlled and maintained within approved budget limitations.
Leads tasks and projects related to the modelling, analysis, and interpretation of divisional and other spatial datasets.
Designs, tests, and builds complex models to solve complex divisional analytics problems, identifying opportunities for using advanced statistical and predictive modelling techniques.
Investigates and implements cutting edge machine learning techniques.
Develops, implements, and evaluates work plans for divisional data projects and tasks.
Explores, analyses, and advises the Team Lead and Manager on the value and applications of, and challenges associated with, emerging datasets.
Works with various research methods.
Builds processes and methods to ingest and analyze large datasets from structured and unstructured data sources such as GPS-probe data, sensor-based data, and other large datasets.
Conducts peer and literature reviews on novel modelling and analysis techniques in spatial data science.
Establishes and applies best practices in documenting processes, models, analyses, and code.
Keeps abreast of the latest research in the relevant fields, spatial data analytics and machine learning.
Serves as a subject matter expert on decisions or questions related to data analytics and modelling.
Prepares reports and submissions (e.g. briefing notes, staff reports, and other correspondences) for the Division and City Council.
Works with various research methods.
Works with internal and external partners and private sector collectors, disseminators and analysts to collect and analyze data on behalf of the Division.
Develops strategies to ensure information is available and accessible for stakeholders including Council, the public, and staff.
Attends and presents at conferences and technical working groups, spatial analytics, data analysis, and/or machine learning.
Fosters and maintains effective working relationships and networks with divisional staff, other government agencies, and other data science professionals.
Monitors and evaluates the functionality of applications developed at the Division, and makes recommendations for enhancements.
Ensures compliance with safety and security matters under Occupational Health & Safety legislation and Divisional safety and security policies.
Support the Division's production databases and participate in after-hours standby/on-call rotations during holidays and emergency events.
Monitor and optimize database performance, capacity, and availability.
Develop tools and processes for alerting, reporting, and resource utilization, and collaborate with corporate database administrators and technical specialists to manage database environments and licensing.
Establish and maintain database backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity standards.
Provide backup and recovery services and support the implementation of related IT policies and procedures.
Plan and execute data conversions, migrations, and database reorganizations to support system integration, consolidation, legacy system upgrades, and server virtualization initiatives.
Research and evaluate new database technologies and software releases.
Recommend enhancements, standards, and solutions to support evolving information architecture, high availability requirements, and industry best practices.
Refresh development, testing, and training databases to support the software development lifecycle.
Participate in testing, training, acceptance activities, and quality and security reviews.